What is Social Media Marketing? (SMM)

Social media marketing, or SMM, is the act of using social media platforms for marketing purposes, such as creating a Facebook page, posting on Instagram, and tweeting on Twitter. These social networks are a fantastic way to reach many people with your messages quickly and easily - they're just not ideal if you plan to use them to sell products or services.

So what is SMM then?

Social media marketing is defined as "a variety of Internet-based marketing activities conducted on social networking services to promote specific products or brands." In short: it's the process of spreading brand awareness by using various types of online content (such as blog posts) and websites (such as YouTube videos).

SMM is a very broad term, and here at Maven we can't even begin to cover it all. However, we can give you some basics:

The process of SMM can be broken down into three main components (listed in order of when they're typically done): Content creation, Distribution and Reactions.

Content Creation : this encompasses creating blog posts and videos on social media platforms such as Blogger and YouTube. These relatively simple posts are often what begin the actual conversation about your brand on social media - for example, writing "our favourite baby shower games" may have the effect of reminding many people exactly what company you work for.

Distribution : sharing material across all of your social media channels. This can also include emailing it to family, friends and clients, or printing off pamphlets with your latest blog posts on them. after your content reaches a critical mass on social media (meaning that it's spread far beyond just a couple of friends), you must be able to reach those followers with marketable, attractive messages to boost their conversion rates.

Reactions: tagging your content with hashtags is a key part of building awareness for your brand and will help to boost a post's reach. Remember that social media is not just about being seen - it's about being engaged. Responses such as "I love this!" or "I wonder what happened next?" are important ways to keep audiences on the page.

The process can also be broken down further - for example, the distribution component could include sending out emails to all of your followers, or posting on LinkedIn and Twitter. The reactions could include reposting the content in its original form or asking questions in response to it.